Attacks on Freedom

Post-9/11/01 Attacks on Self-Determination and Civil Liberties.

The word 'freedom' has become cliched as never before
since the 9/11/01 attack
because the Bush administration has used that attack
both to explain the motives of the attacks' alleged perpetrators,
and to justify various forms of aggression.
In his September 20, 2001 speech entitled
Freedom at War with Fear, G. W. Bush said:

On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war
against our country.
...
and night fell on a different world,
a world where freedom itself is under attack.
...
They hate our freedoms.
...
This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism,
tolerance and freedom.
...Freedom and fear are at war.
The advance of human freedom -- ... -- now depends on us.
...
I will not yield; I will not rest;
I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom
and security for the American people.
1Â

Here the President gets a great deal of mileage out of the word freedom.
Since there is no physical evidence that any of the alleged perpetrators
carried out the crime, the entire case "convicting" Osama bin Laden
rests on the idea that the "radical network of terrorists"
"hate our freedoms".
Bush then sells the War on Terror as a "struggle for freedom".

Just as the pretext for the War on Terror is
fraudulent,
so is its stated target.
The War on Terror would more accurately be called
the War on Freedom.
Indeed, that is the name of a book on the subject
by Nafeez Ahmed.
2Â